The No. 70 McLaren Has Two Recent Second-Place Finishes and Brendan Iribe Leads the Bob Akin Award Standings
By Mark Robinson
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – That sound you hear in the GT Daytona (GTD) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship may just be the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO picking up steam down the homestretch of the 2023 campaign.
In its first full WeatherTech Championship season after collecting the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD title a year ago, co-drivers Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff have put together a pair of second-place finishes in the last three races to move into third place in the GTD standings. And with it, they’ve solidified Iribe’s lead in the Bob Akin Award standings that grants an invitation to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans next June as the award’s biggest prize.
The runner-up finish Aug. 6 at Road America may have been the best collective result for the No. 70 team that has amassed six top-six finishes this season in the crowded GTD class. Iribe qualified an impressive second in GTD and held that position until turning over the car to Schandorff on the first pit stop. The talented Dane pushed the new-for-2023 McLaren 720S EVO to the limits over nearly the final two hours, trimming a sizable deficit to the leading No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 to just 2.261 seconds at the checkered flag.
“We did the opposite strategy of most of the other guys,” Schandorff explained. “I just tried to save a lot of fuel at the beginning and just keep the tires as fresh as possible, and then at the end just send like quali laps. It worked out almost well. … But anyway, I’m really happy with the whole team effort.”
Schandorff has shown the McLaren’s strong pace on several occasions this season. In addition to recording the fastest lap of any GT driver (GTD or GTD PRO) just two laps from the finish at Road America, he set the fast GTD lap at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and second-fastest overall GT lap at Long Beach. Schandorff, Iribe and co-drivers Ollie Millroy and Marvin Kirchhofer also led 64 laps on their way to a third-place showing in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Schandorff explained that the McLaren EVO is very track sensitive, struggling at places like Lime Rock Park but excelling at high-speed, high-grip circuits like Road America. He and Iribe hope that it continues to excel at the three remaining tracks – VIRginia International Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta – as they push for a first win and to lock up the Akin award for Iribe.
“Very important,” is how Iribe described the Akin honor for Bronze-rated GTD drivers. He’s raced in the GTE Am class at Le Mans twice (2021 and ’22) but would like to go back as the representative of IMSA. Iribe leads Sheena Monk by 200 points in the Akin standings heading to the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR on Aug. 27.
“That’s one of our goals for the year is to get to Le Mans next year,” Iribe said. “We’ve done it a couple of times in GTE and we’re just really excited to do it in GT3. Most of my career in racing, which is pretty short – a couple years – it’s all been focused on GT3, so we’re excited to get there with the team.”
His co-driver said that Iribe’s growth as a driver is a primary reason why the team is enjoying its success this year.
“Brendan has improved massively,” Schandorff said. “I mean, that lap he did in (Road America) qualifying, I need to tighten my seatbelts to do better than that. He really, really has done a big, big step up. He needs the main applause for this because he is also the key why we are here that we can get the kind of good position and still be able to fight.”